Chiropractor gets 70 months in prison for fraud

The former owner of a Maywood chiropractic clinic has been sentenced to almost 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding insurers of more than $1.4 million, prosecutors said.

Darwin Minnis, 56, pleaded guilty last year to health care fraud after being charged along with two co-defendants in March 2010. Today, U.S. District Judge John Grady sentenced him to 70 months in federal prison, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.

Between 2000 or before and 2009, Minnis, a chiropractor, and others involved in the Spine and Joint Rehabilitation Center in Maywood submitted claims to workers' compensation and other insurers for work that was either not done or whose cost was inflated, according to prosecutors. The claims totaled more than $3 million, and those involved were able to collect $1.4 million, prosecutors said.

Most of the patients at the clinic were U.S. Postal Service employees eligible for federal workers’ compensation benefits, prosecutors said.

Two codefendants also have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.